How to commit the perfect murder: Michelle Davies
We asked Michelle Davies, author of Gone Astray, how she would commit the perfect murder. It involves poison, the London Underground and an after-dinner petit four...
We asked Michelle Davies, author of Gone Astray, how she would commit the perfect murder. It involves poison, the London Underground and an after-dinner petit four...
What is your weapon of choice?
Poison, slipped into a drink. Stabbing someone is out of the question because I don't think I could handle the sight of lots of blood, much less be bothered to clean up afterwards. I'm also too clumsy to handle a gun; I'd probably shoot myself in the foot by mistake.
What is your motive?
To right a wrong. My victim will have done something heinously evil to land on my radar. They're about to get what's coming to them.
Where is the scene of the crime?
The middle of a packed restaurant. Dressed as a waitress (I would be wearing the uniform under my coat, which I would take off at the last minute), I would “accidentally” knock into my victim's table and tip a plate of food into their companion's lap, then slip the poison into the victim's drink during the ensuing chaos. Yes, I have given this much thought.
What is your getaway vehicle?
Assuming I carry out the murder in London, where I live, I shall be escaping – hood up to avoid CCTV detection, naturally – on the Underground. It's all too easy to skip between platforms and different lines and the crowds will be the perfect camouflage.
Who is your accomplice?
I don't have one. I wouldn't want to implicate anyone else. My victim will deserve to die; I'm not risking someone else being sent to prison for a scumbag like that.
Do you have a calling card?
As tempting as it would be to leave something on the restaurant table – a fake bill adorned with my master criminal name, perhaps? – I wouldn't want to do anything that might be forensically traceable. Or perhaps I'd leave an after-dinner petit four in the shape of the Grim Reaper on their plate, like a macabre version of the Milk Tray man.
Gone Astray
by Michelle Davies
Lesley and her husband Mack are the sudden winners of a £15 million EuroMillions jackpot. They move with their 15-year-old daughter Rosie to an exclusive gated estate in Buckinghamshire, leaving behind their ordinary lives - and friends - as they are catapulted into wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
But it soon turns into their darkest nightmare when, one beautiful spring afternoon, Lesley returns to their house to find it empty: their daughter Rosie is gone.
DC Maggie Neville is assigned to be Family Liaison Officer to Lesley and Mack, supporting them while quietly trying to investigate the family. And she has a crisis threatening her own life - a secret from the past that could shatter everything she's worked so hard to build.
As Lesley and Maggie desperately try to find Rosie, their fates hurtle together on a collision course that threatens to end in tragedy . . .